Trip to Spain Day 2

The fun thing about staying in the Ryadh was how much attention they gave us.  Breakfast was great!  They brought out 2 large bowls of cereal (cocoa puffs and some graham cracker cereal), croissants, and yogurt.  Oh, I almost forgot the freshly squeezed orange juice.  Yum.  I’m sure they do that for everyone, but people stayed near us to help with pouring the cereal and milk or to hand out croissants.  Lots of fun.  After breakfast we packed up all our stuff and headed back down to the van.  Once again, because we have the yellow diplomatic plates and because Jake is a softy, we were shaken down for money.  The parking was supposed to be free, but when it was time to leave they charged us.  Crazy.

All of us were super excited for today.  We were actually going to leave Morocco and enter Spain.  We chose to take the ferry from a Spanish city which sits in Morocco, Ceuta, to Algeciras.  The border crossing was insane.  Nothing was marked and, by chance, found out that we had to have our exit visas prior to hitting the border.  Jake was directed to a diplomatic line so he was able to do everyone’s passport pretty quickly.  Once you crossed out of Morocco and hit the passport control for Spain things were much smoother.  I would be lying if I didn’t say that we were all a little glad to be out of Morocco and its craziness.  We were not able to see much of Ceuta before heading out, but we did manage to find a McDonalds with a play area for the kids.  That was a good lunch.  After McDonalds we bought our tickets and headed for the ferry.

Driving your car up onto a boat is a pretty neat thing.  It is fun to watch as you pass over the ramp and see water beneath you.  From what I could tell the ferry could hold roughly 500 people, although it was no where close to being full.  After parking the van we headed upstairs and were pleasantly surprised to find a snack bar and 2 little stores.  There was some café type seating near the snack bar and along the windows were rows of seats similar to a train or plane.  Everything was enclosed except for a small area off the back.  This is where we watched the boat take off and dock.   The trip only lasted 35 min., and surprisingly, none of us got seasick. 

All of us on the ferry

Good-bye Morocco

Rachel and David on the ferry

Hello Spain!

 

Once we were off the ferry we headed toward the hotel.  We found it pretty easily and Jake went inside to get checked in.  What he found was a traveler’s nightmare.  Each “room” could hold only 3 single beds and Jake said the rooms were so small that there was no walking room around the beds.  They had no crib for the baby, and the free breakfast would cost us 12 Euros/person.  Everything Jake had been told on the phone was a lie.  We all got back into the van and started driving, unsure now where we would stay.  We got back on the autovia (freeway) and headed north.  Rachel gave us a prayer asking Heavenly Father to guide us to a hotel.  We just kept driving.  Jake found he needed to get some gas and the next service area also showed lodging available.  We pulled into the gas station and next to it was a restaurant and hotel.  Jake went inside and they gave him an incredible deal, so we found our hotel for the evening.  They gave us 2 rooms with 4 twin beds in one and 3 twin beds in the other and then also brought in a travel crib for the baby.  I think that was the first time in our married life we have gone to a hotel and slept in twin beds.  But the hotel itself was very nice.  Small, not a lot of amenities, but we did get a free “breakfast” the next morning.

Front of our awesome find

Kids' room view 1

Kids' room view 2 - 4 twin beds total

Mom and Dad's room + babies view 1

Mom and Dad's room view 2 - yes, that is 3 twin beds. s

Our little balcony

The view from our room - chickens!  Gotta love it!

For dinner we went into the little “Pueblo” near the hotel.  It was just a small village, but it had a park in the center where the kids were able to play.  Jake went around to the different restaurants to find one that we could afford and what he found was that none of them opened until 8:30.  One restaurant, however, was able to throw together some appetizer plates for us.  We dined on meatballs (1/person), salad with tuna, bread, slices of turkey, croquet, and fries.  And to wash it all down a large bottle of water.  It was one of those dinners where things are so funny you always remember it.   And the best part of the day was that after Rachel’s prayer I felt the spirit very strong for the rest of the day, and I think everyone else did, too.  Everyone just got along so well.

Playground in the Pueblo

Jackie

David

Rachel with Joseph in the background and Jordan in the foreground

Sammy and Jordan

Trip to Spain Day 1

Our trip started out on a beautiful, Moroccan day.  Our plan was to take a state highway up to a town in the mountains called Chefchaouen and then to stop for the night in Tetouan.  The roads in Morocco are not labeled very well and about an hour into the trip we started seeing the ocean, which meant we were on the wrong road.  Ugh.  With no internet in the car we were stuck with what street signs there were and general directions from a map we could barely read.  We managed to find a road that would bring us to the highway we were supposed to be on and headed east.  As we were about to enter the town that would put us on the right path we were pulled over to the side of the road.  Now, in all honesty, Jake was going a little fast.  But quickly it became apparent that what was really going on was a shake-down.  They wanted Jake to simply hand over  500 dirham ($60) without writing out a proper ticket or anything.  Well, we’ve been here long enough to know not to do that.  So there we sat, time ticking away, as someone headed to the police station to get the ticket book so they could write Jake a ticket.  We still had to hand over the 500 dhs, but at least we knew it would be accounted for.  And all this only added to the driving time, of which the children were quick to point out.

The drive on a Moroccan state highway is interesting.  Think of it like driving out in the country on a little country road where villages dot the landscape.  There are small towns you pass through where goats and sheep are herded alongside the road.  It is also interesting to see cows and donkeys tied up to electrical posts.  The first time I saw one I thought the cow was free, but then I saw the rope holding them just off the road.  Either way, every time we passed one I thought it would dart into the road.  I guess I’m just not used to it.  The landscape reminded me of Colorado minus the majestic mountains.  The coolest thing we saw, by far, on the drive was a mountain which looked like it had a soft, white blanket wrapping its peak and then falling down the side of the mountain like a waterfall.  You could actually see the clouds falling down the side of the mountain.  Neat.  We stopped twice on our journey for some leg extensions.  The first was to buy some dirt-cheap pottery on the side of the road.  The second time we went exploring in a dry river bed.  You could see how in the spring the water that would flow through there would be wide, swift and very dangerous.  But that day it was just a little stream perfect for throwing rocks in.

It took a lot longer to get to Chefchaouen than we had anticipated, even if we hadn’t started off on the wrong road.  We anticipated 3 hours, and it took 5.  By the time we got there we were ready to just get to a hotel and stop.  The plan was to take a nature walk through the mountains there, but a) we couldn’t find it, b) the traffic and people were ridiculous and c) we just wanted to get to Tetouan by this point so we didn’t stop.  We were awed at the beauty of a town built on the side of the mountain and all the colors of the buildings, though.  The popular color for homes and businesses here in Morocco is white.  At Chefchaouen many of the buildings were blue, purple, or a mixture of the two.  Put that with the green of the mountain behind it and it was beautiful.  Was it worth the time in the car, though, that we are still debating.

We drove a total of 6 ½ hours to get to Tetouan.  We were so done driving!  But now came the difficult task of finding the Ryadh we were to stay in (a ryadh is like a small hotel or hostel).  We tried to find it ourselves, but it quickly became clear that the directions we had printed out from Google Maps was not going to get us there.  We ended up getting a taxi and following them.  Then when we were as close as a car could go someone from the Ryadh came out to find us.  They took us somewhere we could park the car and he took the kids and I up to the hotel while Jake waited for someone to come and help him with the bags.  The man carried David for me and I carried Jordan.  It was a little farther than we thought and I tried to put Jordan down to walk, but then realized he had no shoes on (he had taken them off in the van and neither Jake nor I had noticed) so I had no choice but to carry him the entire way. 

The little courtyard outside our bedrooms on the 2nd floor.

The Ryadh itself was very nice.  Tile walls and floors, and the people went above and beyond to accommodate us.  We had 2 rooms on the 2^nd floor which were across from each other.  The 4 older kids slept in the room with 2 queen beds, one being up in a loft, and Jake and I, along with the 2 little ones took the other room which had a queen bed and 2 cribs.  Dinner wasn’t served until 7, so we played some games and waited for something to eat.  Jake ordered some food earlier for us so when 7 hit we only had to go down and eat.  It turned out that Jake didn’t order enough food for everyone, so he had to add a little chicken and fries to get everyone taken care of.  After we were all fed we headed up to bed.  We put the two little ones to bed and put a movie on for the older kids via the laptop.  The beds were a little hard, but after a very long day of driving we were all ready to hit the sack and sleep it off.  Day 2 was sure to be a great adventure.

Jake and my room along with the babies in the ryadh in Tatouan

The loft where the girls slept

In the loft where the girls slept

The kids' room.  This was the boys' bed.

I can't say what?

I know that I am not done with my adventures in Israel, but, realistically, I am not going to finish.  There is too much to write and I don't have the time.  So, lets sum it up by saying I met some wonderful people, I heard some great speeches, and I am very grateful to my husband for letting me go.  If you ever get a chance to go to Israel, I would highly recommend it.  It is an amazing place with history as you will never see anywhere else.

Today my thoughts are geared more for what we take for granted in America and what we assume everyone gets to enjoy.  I have a friend here who also writes a blog.  A recent entry she made has caught the attention of several people here and she has been asked to remove it.  What could be so terrible that she would be asked to take down her own thoughts and experiences?  I'll tell you, it is that she made an entry about the king that some people consider inappropriate.  There is a law here in Morocco that you can not make fun of the king or do anything which could be construed as ridiculing him.  In her blog she poked fun at the fact that every store has a picture of the king doing something that relates to what is being sold at the store.  One example is a picture of the king with chickens at a poultry store or where eggs are sold.  Personally, she finds this amusing.  And that is what she wrote in her blog.  Now she has been asked to kindly remove the post.  Worse case scenario, if the government feels it is warranted, her family will be asked to leave Morocco to return to the states.  I doubt it will get to that point, but she has no intention of taking it down, either.

As I was listening to her tell her story I began to really think about what it means to have freedom of speech.  Never in history have people every been able to say anything they would like against those ruling over them.  Talking ill against the government would get you fined in the least and killed at the worst.  In fact, in most countries today the same still applies.  There have been stories coming out of North Korea lately about what kind of hell people go through whose families are accused of berating or even whispering about their government.  Obviously here in Morocco it will get you jailed.  In China you just disappear.  In Cuba you are sent to a reeducation camp.  During WWII in Germany you were whisked away to a work camp.  Even here in the US, there have been several times where rights were taken away in the name of "National Security."  See http://www.faqs.org/espionage/In-Int/Intelligence-and-Democracy-Issues-and-Conflicts.html

Today we have "Occupy _______" going on all over the country.  People are out exercising their right to say whatever comes to their minds. Many of those down there think our constitution should be done away with and a new form of government should be installed.  Not all, but many.  And when asked what they would replace our current government with, socialism and communism seem to be the most popular choice.  This begs the question, do those people really understand how those types of governments run?  The very liberty used to voice that opinion is the FIRST freedom that will be taken.  To have total control mean that there can be no dissension.  Any threat to power must be done away.

We have spent the last 200+ years being able to speak our minds (minus the times we weren't).  We have been able to have political discourse.  People have been able to protest.  And we sit back and can not grasp the fact that we are alone in that arena.  Since we have those freedoms we assume everyone else does, too.  That is just not true.  We are the ONLY country that freedom of speech is guaranteed without repercussions.

My final thoughts.  If you are accustomed to a certain way of life you think it will be like that forever.  We are accustomed to freedom of speech.  We assume we will always have it.  But rest assured, with the right people in power, it will be the first thing to go.